FREE ESSAY ON ANAXAGORAS

ANAXAGORAS

Anaxagoras
Greek philosophy was first born in Ionia, where the main place of study, which produced
the first great thinkers, was Miletus. The school of Miletus spawned the three first
philosophers of the time. Anaxagoras was a philosopher from approximately 500 to 428. He
used ideas from past philosophers to come up with ideas that contradicted as well as
complemented views of philosophers from the past. These early philosophers had one thing
on their minds, Overarching Principle. There was understanding the world on one hand, and
how to live life as the second overall idea of philosophy. These thoughts have come to be
some of the most prominent ideas that philosophy has accepted to this day. Many things
brought Anaxagoras to come up with the philosophies that he did. Other Pre-Socratic
philosophers influenced him to come up with the philosophies that he did. 
In early Greek philosophy there were two dominant ideas that were used as general themes,
how to live life and understanding the world. In the beginning of philosophy, the
philosophers were trying to come up with one overarching 
principle. There were tree main philosophers that started this thinking process. 
Thales believed that everything in the world came from water or was a form of water,
which in the end would eventually turn back into water. He thought that this one element
comprised everything that held the universe together. This is what the early philosophers
came to think of, something that was the basis for all existence. Next was Anaximander,
who was a disciple of Thales. He knew that Thales' belief that water composed everything
couldn't be plausible because water is only one substance that is limited. He believed in
the apeiron, or the boundless. By this he meant that all life comes from infinite
atmosphere, which is a perpetual vitality that governs all things. This could connect all
things through a more infinite aspect than water. Reflecting on what Anaximander had come
up with, Anaxemines thought that there was more to say than just the boundless.
Anaximenes was in turn a deciple of Anaximander, he expanded on both of their ideas. He
came up with another concept of how the world works. He believed that air was the main
principle in holding the world together. He believed that air held the soul together with
the world that we live in. Also he thought that Air could be comprised into Fire and
Earth through rarefaction, and water through condensation. After these philosophers,
there became one problem: Being and change. Being and change is classified into three
main categories. The first one is 
that Being is everything and change cannot occur. The second idea is that change is
everything, and that Being cannot exist. The third idea is a combination of the previous
two. It states that Being and change co-exist and support one another to comprise the
world into a living thing. 
Now that there is a basis for thinking, people started to think about how the world
changes and what can affect that. First came the doctrine of permanence. These people
were called the Eleatics who believed that the world was permanent and didn't change.
There were five of them that had major ideas in changing thought of the time. First was
Xenophanes who believed that one divisible God existed, which is a precursor for most of
the religions that we have now. Next we have Permenides who believed that Thought and
Being are one; whereas Melissus of Samos who thought that being was interpreted
materialistically. As a student of Permenides, Zeno had the notion that motion is not
real and that Being, which to him is immutable matter, is alone real. Last is Gorgias of
Leontitum, a nihilist, is a pupil of Zeno's and denies the idea of motion and space and
negates Being. On the other end of the spectrum are the Heracliteans. The Heracliteans
take the opposite stance, and believe that there is no such thing as permanence, and that
everything changes. First was Heaclitus, who believed that the world is made up of
contrarieties, opposites and strifes, and that everything is a transformation of 
fire. The other Heraclitean is Pythagoras. Pythagoras thought that Number is the 
essence of the world, and that form is the crucial factor in the creation and being of
things. The next group of thinkers are the Atomists, which include Anaxagoras. 
The Atomists take a central stance on the problem of being and change. They are a mixture
of both of the ideas, that all change is change of place. Before Anaxagoras, was
Empedocles, who believed that everything came from the roots of the world: Air, Fire,
Earth, and Water. His rationale for the motion of things was relatively simple compared
to that of Anaxagoras. He thought that everything had an attraction or repulsion as a
cause of motion and change, that everything was love and strife. Anaxagoras is the next
philosopher in the series of thinkers. 
Anaxagoras has one of the most unique views of how the world is and has come to be
Anaxagoras is said to have the first ideas of the role of the Mind in the formation of
the world. His view on creation was that there was a primal vortex that separated
everything in the beginning like hot from cold and sea from dry land. This view of a
vortex carried over into the Mind and creates the notion of separation through motion. In
his look at matter, there is basically part if everything in everything. He uses the term
seed to describe the world. When a tree grows from a seed the parts of the tree; leaves,
trunk and branches, are not really new, they are just a larger portion of what was in the
seed. The next part of 
Anaxagoras' theory is that of homoeomerous thought. This means that everything is a part
of everything, no matter how trivial the object or part. He believes that everything is a
blend of things. There is an infinitely amount of division in small things, as well as an
infinitely large number of things that can be compared to the small things. 
Anaxagoras was the first thinker to offer more than just a generalization on the world.
He came up with an explanation on how the world was created by motion and a more
understandable perception of how the world is created and thought of. He will pave the
way for other great philosophers that quite frequently make mention of his views and his
ideas.